Oct 8 Our First Egg | Backyard Chickens

It's about time our girls made their debut. We got our chickens in May - 1 pullet that was already 8 weeks old (Myrtle) and 5 straight run day old chicks. Straight run means you don't know the sex of the chick until either visible signs based on the breed or until it starts crowing or laying! After debating between purchasing them online from a site that 'guarantees females', I decided to get them from a breeder about an hour from town. I found her on craigslist, and she was the sweetest lady who bred every bird imaginable...peacocks, chickens, ducks, doves, swans...they were all out on her farm. Something about the full experience of going out to a farm to see the types of chickens I was going to have made all the difference for me. The farmer also made some pretty good guesses on the sex of the chicks she gave to me because 4 out of 5 were female! She had a few different breeds that would meet the needs we wanted from our birds - both for enjoyment (to give us something to do outside) and purpose (to give us eggs!). Well, yesterday morning as I was getting Remy's shoes on I could hear one of our chickens making some noise. I thought surely one of them couldn't have gotten over the fence again (a story for another day when I chased one of our girls in a neighbor's yard. Wings have been clicked since then!). So, I thought let's just got out and do a quick hunt to see...just to see. The girls always hang out together as a flock. When I saw Myrtle over near the garden solo my hopes were raised because it looked like she had just come from somewhere other than hanging with the others. I went into the coop and did a quick check on the ground, and then just as I was leaving peeked into the hen house to find what we've been waiting 5 months for...our first egg! It was like Christmas morning. And then I laughed at myself for getting so excited over one egg. What do I do with you? Should we eat you now? Yes, I asked the egg several questions in my head. Needless to say, I saved it in the in the fridge in hopes of more coming along in the next few days.Here's Myrtle girl at 2 1/2 months and all of our girls full grown this week (2 blue laced red wyandottes at top, 1 silver laced wyandotte, and 2 bantam lavender ameraucanas that will lay baby blue eggs). I'll hope to share photos of eggs and a recipe next week with whatever we decide to do with them! Enjoy the day. *bisous, holly.